The invention relates to an apparatus for heating and/or cooking food in water.
In particular, the present invention concerns an apparatus, usable in either private domestic kitchens or community kitchens where it is necessary to heat, in the cases of pre-cooked or frozen foods, or to cook, in water, quantities of foods constituted in particular by Italian pasta asciutta.
The prior art embraces apparatus of the above-mentioned type comprising substantially a water containment tub in which heating elements, constituted by electric resistors, are housed. For the heating or cooking of foodstuffs, one or more perforated containers containing the food to be cooked are immersed in the said tub (for the sake of simplicity only one container is immersed in this description), which food is kept immersed in the boiling water for the time necessary to cook the food. The boiling water contained in the said tub produces a considerable and continuous amount of steam which is lost into the atmosphere in which the apparatus is working:
the further conspicuous quantity of steam which develops each time the container is extracted from the tub at the end of the cooking time is also lost in the same way.
This continuous dispersion of the steam into the atmosphere gives rise to important drawbacks, both with regard to the steamy conditions, caused by the above-mentioned steam escapes, and rather unpleasant for the operators of the apparatus, and with regard to the condensation settling on surfaces near the apparatus itself.
A further drawback of the above-described apparatus derives from the fact that the foods, and in particular pasta asciutta, on termination of cooking and after the container in which they are housed has been extracted from the said tub, frequently remain in the container itself for a certain time, above the tub, before being tipped on to plates or serving containers. When this happens, the foods dry up excessively and lose the fragrance they would have had if served immediately.